Bruntsfield Hospital

Summary

Bruntsfield Hospital was a women's hospital based in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Bruntsfield Hospital
NHS Lothian
Former Bruntsfield Hospital
Bruntsfield Hospital is located in Edinburgh
Bruntsfield Hospital
Shown in Edinburgh
Geography
LocationEdinburgh, Scotland
Coordinates55°56′08″N 3°12′09″W / 55.9355°N 3.2024°W / 55.9355; -3.2024
Organisation
Care systemNHS Scotland
Services
Emergency departmentNo
History
Opened1878
Closed1989
Links
ListsHospitals in Scotland

History edit

 
Plaque and tablet on the hospital building
 
Sophia Jex-Blake memorial plaque in St Giles' Cathedral

The hospital had its origins in public dispensary opened by Sophia Jex-Blake at 73 Grove Street in September 1878.[1] It moved to 6 Grove Street, a building large enough to provide in-patient services, as the Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children in 1885.[1]

When Jex-Blake retired and moved away in 1899, the trustees acquired her house, Bruntsfield Lodge, and fitted it out as an 18-bed women's hospital.[1][2] The hospital committee was led by well-connected women active in various social reform projects such as Flora Stevenson.[3]

In 1910 the hospital merged with "The Hospice", a small maternity home which had been established by Elsie Inglis and the Medical Women's Club at 11 George Square some eleven years previously.[2] A new ward block, designed by Arthur Forman Balfour Paul, was officially opened by Queen Mary in July 1911.[2] The hospital was joined the National Health Service in 1948 and closed in 1989.[2] The building was then converted for residential use and is now known as Greenhill Court.[4]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c "Bruntsfield Hospital". www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk. Lothian Health Services Archive. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d "Bruntsfield Hospital". Historic Hospitals. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  3. ^ "Reflections" (PDF). The Nursing Record. 9 December 1899. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  4. ^ "Greenhill Court". AMA Homes. Retrieved 27 January 2019.

External links edit

  • History of Bruntsfield Hospital (Lothian Health Services Archive)
  • Bruntsfield Hospital and Elsie Inglis Memorial Maternity Hospital (Lothian Health Services Archive)
  • Three Scottish Women's Hospitals from their foundations to 1948 - Lecture given by Margaret Menzies Campbell (Archived at University of Dundee. Also available from Mitchell Library, Glasgow)